Wartime use of Butlins camps continued with resorts at Ayr, Filey & Pwllheli being completed and opened as military camps.

View across boating pond at Butlins Pwllheli.

For many years a holiday camp run by Butlins operated a few miles from Pwllheli at Pen-y-chain.

Butlins substantially rebuilt two of its main camps with a focus on caravan accommodation and branded them under sister company Haven – Pwllheli becoming Hafan y Mor and Ayr becoming Craig Tara.

The line enjoyed a brief resurgence in the 1950s, when the Royal Train traversed the route and other new traffic included Butlins through-specials taking holidaymakers to the new camp in Pwllheli.

" Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows " was also used in the Simpsons episode Marge on the Lam, for the Butlins Company TV advertisements in 2008 and for the Target Australia homewares TV advertisement in 2010.

She was also the guest of honour at the opening of the first Butlins holiday camp, in Skegness in 1936.

Despite the opening of a Butlins holiday camp at Minehead in 1962 which brought some 30, 000 people to the town that year, the line was recommended for closure in the 1963 ' Reshaping of British Railways ' report.

In 1975, after Butlins Minehead holiday camp decided to modernise and refurbish, it was proposed to extract LMS Princess Coronation Class 6229 Duchess of Hamilton, purchased by Billy Butlin in 1966 along with LB & SCR A1 class Knowle ( transported out by road ), under an offer made by British Railways.

Under Compass, the business was expanded into motorway service station kiosks, contract catering locations such as schools, Post Office canteens, Little Chef, Butlins and Haven Holidays.

Butlins was founded by Billy Butlin to provide affordable holidays for ordinary British families.

The architecture seen in this 1985 photograph of Butlins in Ayr was typical of most camps before refurbishment.

The first of the Butlins holiday camps was opened by Billy Butlin in 1936 in Skegness following his success in the development of amusement parks.

In 1968 Billy Butlin's son Bobby took over the management of Butlins and in 1972 the business was sold to the Rank Organisation for £ 43 million.

The remaining resorts were sold to Bourne Leisure in April 1998, and the " Holiday Worlds " branding was dropped in favour of returning the emphasis to the core Butlins name.

A new Butlins logo was also introduced in mid 1998, which has subsequently undergone several modifications and was used until 2011, when Butlins introduced a design similar to their original logo.

Butlins is widely known for its iconic " chalet " accommodation, which was originally the only form of accommodation and consisted of many long lines of single bedrooms in blocks known as " chalet lines ".

Butlins Minehead was opened to the public on 26 May 1962.

Butlins Mosney, County Meath, Ireland was the first camp to be built outside Great Britain.

Mosney was the first Butlins camp outside the UK.

In 1982, Butlins sold the camp, which was renamed Mosney Holiday Centre.

Butlins Skegness was the first of Billy Butlins holiday camps.

Butlins Barry Island was the last of Billy Butlins holiday camps.

Butlins Ayr was built by Billy Butlin as a naval training camp in 1940.

Mangum had headlined and curated the ATP event at Butlins Holiday Park, Minehead between March 9 and March 11 of 2012, other bands from the Elephant 6 collective have already been announced to support including Apples In Stereo, The Olivia Tremor Control and The Music Tapes as well as other artists chosen by Jeff including Joanna Newsom and The Magnetic Fields.

They are now owned and run by Butlins Skyline Ltd a subsidiary company of Bourne Leisure Ltd which also operates other leisure brands in the UK including Warner Leisure Hotels and Haven Holidays.

* 1960s " You'll have a really wonderful time at Butlins by the sea "

The town is also the home of a Butlins Holiday Park which increases Minehead's seasonal tourist population by several thousand.

The Guinness World Record for the largest pillow fight was set on November 14, 2008, at Butlins in Minehead, Somerset, England, headlined by former X Factor singer Chico Slimani.

In 2010, Boredoms toured internationally including two Boadrum performances at All Tomorrow's Parties curated by Matt Groening at Butlins Minehead, England, in addition to shows in London, Japan, Mexico and as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival on October 10, 2010.

* Hafan Y Môr, a former Butlins holiday camp now operated by Haven

Other than Clacton, the Butlins camps were relatively unscathed, and even Clacton, which had been damaged by troop occupation, re-opened in early 1946.

Most of the Dreamland site was requisitioned by the Government during World War II with the park re-opening in June 1946 with Eric Iles as manager and, from 1947, investment from Butlins.

Butlin learned from the experience of Warner, and employed the workers who had constructed the Seaton camp to come to Lincolnshire to build his first camp under the Butlins name at Skegness in 1936, by the outbreak of the war, Butlin had 2 camps and a third under construction.

One yardstick of the relative cultural impact of the three companies is that the Butlins ' Redcoats ( a sort of hybrid of general staff, entertainer and steward ) are remembered more vividly than Pontins ' Bluecoats and Warners ' Greencoats whose uniform was based on the school blazer & tie worn by Captain Harry Warner as a schoolboy are hardly remembered at all.

* 1980 – Billy Butlin, South African-English businessman, founded the Butlins Company ( b. 1899 )

In 1948 Billy Butlin acquired two hotels in The Bahamas and in the 1950s, Butlins began opening hotels in the UK: Saltdean, Brighton ( 1953 ), Blackpool ( 1955 ) and five in Cliftonville ( 1955 – 1956 ).

As such Minehead is now the last remaining Butlins camp that is still largely as Sir Billy designed it.

Many books have been written about Butlins and its history, and about the life of Sir Billy Butlin.

In his autobiography, Butlin refers to Clacton as his second camp ; however, in 1937, the architect Harold Ridley Hooper, who had drawn the plans for the camp at Skegness, created plans on behalf of Butlins ltd, for a second camp at Dovercourt, in Essex.

* April 11 – The first Butlins holiday camp opens at Skegness.

Alexis Mardas, head of The Beatles ' Apple Electronics, declared the Rishikesh ashram to be luxurious, though Ringo Starr likened it to " a kind of spiritual Butlins ", a low-cost British holiday camp.

The camp later became known as Southcoast World until 1998 and is now known as Butlins Bognor Regis Resort.

When booking in on arrival at Butlins ( camp or hotel ) each camper was issued with an enamel badge to wear for the duration of their holiday.

Barry Island 1965 is the ' Holy Grail ' of Butlins badges: the camp didn't open that year as planned.

set in " Maplin's ", a farcical holiday camp loosely styled on Butlins in its early days.

In the television show LOST the character of Charlie Pace learns to swim with his father at a Butlins camp.

* South Wales Echo story about Butlins early career and first holiday camp

The boundary crosses the A52 at a subway across the road, just south of the Butlins camp.

The town's major tourist attraction is Butlins holiday camp.

Previously Filey also had a second station Filey Holiday Camp railway station to the south of the town serving the former Butlins holiday camp.

After the war, Butlins reestablished the holiday camp.

To finance his studies, Boyd worked as a night club DJ and stringer at BBC Radio Brighton ; he also worked for two years as a dolphin trainer at the Brighton Dolphinarium, and later worked two seasons as a red coat entertainer at a Butlins holiday camp in Bognor Regis.